LOCATION LAMA NMEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Haplustalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Lama loam, woodland. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
A1--0 to 7 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) loam, dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) moist; weak fine and medium granular structure; slightly hard, friable, slightly sticky and plastic; many very fine and fine roots; many very fine interstitial pores; neutral (pH 7.2); abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 8 inches thick)
B21t--7 to 13 inches; reddish brown (5YR 5/4) clay, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) moist; moderate very fine and fine subangular blocky structure; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; common fine and very fine roots; many very fine tubular pores; many moderately thick clay films on faces of peds; mildly alkaline (pH 7.4); gradual smooth boundary. (5 to 8 inches thick)
B22t--13 to 22 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) clay, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; strong very fine and fine angular blocky structure; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; common very fine and fine roots; many very fine tubular pores; many moderately thick clay films on peds; 5 percent gravel by volume; mildly alkaline (pH 7.4); gradual smooth boundary. (8 to 10 inches thick)
B23t--22 to 30 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) gravelly clay, dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) moist; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; few very fine and medium roots; many very fine tubular pores; common thin clay films on peds; 25 percent gravel; mildly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear smooth boundary. (7 to 9 inches thick)
B3t--30 to 41 inches; reddish yellow (5YR 6/6) very cobbly light sandy clay, reddish brown (5YR 4/4) moist; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; hard, firm, sticky and plastic; few medium roots; many very fine tubular pores; few thin clay films on peds; 20 percent cobbles and 30 percent gravel mildly alkaline (pH 7.8); abrupt smooth boundary. (10 to 12 inches thick)
C1ca--41 to 48 inches; light reddish brown (5YR 6/4) extremely gravelly light sandy clay loam, reddish brown (5YR 5/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, firm, slightly sticky and slightly plastic; few very fine tubular pores; 20 percent cobbles and 50 percent gravel; slightly effervescent; with carbonate coatings on coarse fragments; moderately alkaline (pH 8.0); clear smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)
C2--48 to 62 inches; yellow (10YR 7/6) extremely gravelly loamy sand, yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) moist; massive; slightly hard, friable; 70 percent gravel, 10 percent cobbles; noneffervescent; mildly alkaline (pH 7.4).
TYPE LOCATION: Taos County, New Mexico; AMS Photo #737, SW1/4 NE1/4 section 23, T.28N., R.12E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Mean annual soil temperature is 48 to 52 degrees F. In most years, these soils are dry for 90 or more cumulative days in some subhorizon between depths of 4 and 12 inches, but are not dry in all parts for more than half the time that the soil temperature is higher than 41 degrees F. at a depth of 20 inches (See Remarks). Rock fragments are gravel, cobbles, and stones of granite and quartz. Carbonates as soft powdery lime occur at depths of 28 to 40 inches.
The A1 horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 5 or 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist, and chroma of 2 or 3. It is fine sandy loam, loam, or clay loam and has 0 to 10 percent gravel.
The B2t horizon has a hue of 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 5 or 6 dry, 3 or 4 moist, and chroma of 3 or 4. It is clay loam, sandy clay or clay and has 35 to 50 percent clay and 5 to 25 percent gravel.
The C horizon has 40 to 60 percent gravel and 10 to 20 percent cobbles.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Amos, Jacks and Montecito series. Amos soils have distinct mottles in the Bt horizon. Jacks soils have a lithic contact at depths of less than 40 inches. Montecito soils are less than 20 inches to the Cca horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Lama soils are on broad alluvial fans at elevations of 7,000 to 8,500 feet. The slopes range from 0 to 30 percent but most of them are 5 percent. The annual precipitation ranges from 16 to 18 inches of which about 60 percent is winter snow and rain and 40 percent comes from summer storms.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Montecito soils.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained; medium to rapid runoff; moderately slow to slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used for rangeland, watershed, recreation, and timber production. Native vegetation is mainly pinyon pine, oneseed juniper, Gambel oak, widely scattered ponderosa pine, blue grama, Kentucky bluegrass and annual grasses.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern New Mexico. The series is inextensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Bozeman, Montana
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Taos Area, New Mexico, 1976.
REMARKS: Classification is tentative until information on the moisture regime is available.
OSED scanned by SSQA. Last revised by state on 3/76.
The superactive cation exchange activity class was added in 03/2003 to the taxonomic classification by the National Soil Survey Center on request of the Lakewood MLRA office, without review of the soil series property data. The remainder of this document has not been updated.